7 August 2009
Cape Town — Justice Sandile Ngcobo thought he was dreaming when we watched President Jacob Zuma announce on TV his nomination to lead South Africa's Judiciary.
"I felt I needed someone to pinch me to remind me that it was really happening," he told the Cape Argus on Thursday after Zuma announced him as his candidate to take over from Chief Justice Pius Langa when he retires in October.
"When you read the papers you don't get a sense of what this means, but when I sat down and watched the news and the president announced my name to state I was nominated, you look around to see whether perhaps you are not dreaming."
Justice Ngcobo, who started out as a clerk in a magistrate's court, was appointed as a judge in the Supreme Court, Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division, in 1986. He went on to the Labour Appeal Court, where he was later appointed Acting Judge President.
He was appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1999. Justice Ngcobo returned from a teaching stint at Harvard Law School in April.
Speaking exclusively to the Cape Argus from his Durban home, Justice Ngcobo said he regretted that his mother was not still alive to see her son appointed to lead South Africa's judiciary.
"My mother took over my education after my father died in 1955. She did a good job taking care of my education and I wish she could have been here to see the announcement on television. "But I have no doubt that wherever she is, she is watching with pleasure."
The judge said he had been taking a tea break after spending on Thursday morning reading alone at home, when he turned on the television - and saw Zuma announce his nomination. Justice Ngcobo confessed that the moment had felt unreal.
But he made it clear he was not in the least bit uncertain about the task he faced. Asked about the challenges he would seek to address once he took office, Justice Ngcobo said his primary aim was to make sure the administration of justice worked efficiently and that access to justice became a reality for all South Africans.
He said that at the recent Second Judicial Conference, his fellow judges had - perhaps with some foresight - nominated him to oversee the implementation of a declaration adopted after the conference.
As a result, he had already been gearing up to confront issues such as court backlogs, delays in giving judgements, access to courts and the transformation of the judiciary. But Justice Ngcobo has less than two years before retirement and it might not be possible to complete all he has set out to do during his term.
Will he consider staying longer if asked? "It would be premature to answer that question. It is something one would have to confront as and when it arises," he said, adding that he had already been thinking of returning to the lecture room on retirement.
"I knew that I was going to retire in two years' time. I had been teaching at Harvard Law School in the past few years and I have been looking forward to teaching again."
Asked about the simmering tension between the executive and the judiciary, which has periodically exploded in recent years, Justice Ngcobo acknowledged that anyone living in the country during the past year would have taken note.
But it was critical to ensure there was a working relationship between the judiciary and the executive, he said. "All of us, all three branches of government, are involved in giving effect to the constitution and have to work together to make sure it is upheld," he said.
He declined to speculate on the future working relationship be-tween him and Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who at one stage had been considered a shoo-in to take over from Chief Justice Langa.
However, after Thursday's announcement, he had been inundated with a flood of congratulations, Justice Ngcobo said . His colleagues had expressed their support and his friends and family had demanded a celebration. But the future chief justice was not ready to oblige.
"I have to internalise it first," he said. "I think it is exciting, I am flattered by the honour the president has bestowed on me. "It is a magnificent show of recognition of my talent and what I have put in over the years, and something very rare."
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